I was going through some papers the other day and came across my undergraduate transcript, something I haven't laid eyes on in probably a decade. Reading through it was a humbling trip down memory lane. In the 12 years since I've graduated, I clearly remember (more like mis-remember) doing better in some courses than I …

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I'm very happy to be travelling to the Boston area in a few weeks! I will be speaking at the New England SQL User Group, which meets in Burlington, Massachusetts, on Wednesday December 12, 2018. I will be delivering my session Locks, Blocks, and Snapshots: Maximizing Database Concurrency. This takes a look at SQL …

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With the holiday season upon us, it's important to remember that it is always better to give than to receive. This year, the Azure Cosmos DB team is doing just that, and giving us a ton – in the form of the Cosmos DB 30 day trial. But this isn't just a single 30 day trial, it's renewable unlimited times! Now you can …

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While browsing Reddit last night, I came across "Farewell etaoin shrdlu", a 30 minute documentary showing the last day the New York Times used hot metal typesetting to print their paper, which was July 2, 1978. I've long been fascinated by Linotype machines, which cast molded lead "slugs" for a line …

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All the news from the Keynote on day 1 of PASS Summit 2018!

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All the news from the Keynote on day 1 of PASS Summit 2018!

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I don't know where the last year went, but it's once again time for PASS Summit. It really doesn't feel like a year has passed! This will be my seventh PASS Summit as an attendee and my sixth as a speaker. I know I'm extremely fortunate to have been able to attend and present so many times, and am looking to the …

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PASS Summit is now approaching really quickly, so this will be my final tip for the year. I've mentioned in previous posts about the tremendous networking opportunities you will find at Summit, and I'm going to bring that up again, because I really feel it's that important. There is a ton that goes on during the day at …

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I'm very proud to once again be speaking at SQL Saturday in Portland, Oregon, coming up on November 3! Portland is one of my favorite cities and has long been one of my favorite SQL Saturday events. It also a wonderful way to ease in to a great week at PASS Summit, and the start point of the SQLTrain, both of which I …

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Well, maybe the title is a little bit harsh. You absolutely can drop a SQL Server database that's offline, but remember that its files won't be deleted if you do. Safely Dropping Databases At a previous employer, we had a well-defined process when dropping databases for a client. It went something like this: Confirm …

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